If you have a dog or cat who enjoys going outdoors, your house might have a simple but useful feature: a pet door. And while dogs and cats have been living in and around our homes for thousands of years, it’s anyone’s guess as to when the first homeowner decided to create a designated door for them to go in and out as they please.
What’s less of a mystery is the oldest known cat door still in existence. You can find it at Exeter Cathedral in Devon, England. It’s actually more of a hole than a door or flap, and it’s thought to date back to 1598, when it was cut in the door at the request of the newly appointed bishop, William Cotton.
The cathedral’s historian, Diane Walker, says that its purpose was to help the bishop’s cat keep the rodent population at Exeter Cathedral under control. The door, located at the base of the North Tower, leads to an empty space behind the cathedral’s medieval astronomical clock, which itself dates back to the late 14th century. Installed in 1376, the large clock was particularly enticing to mice and rats, as animal fat was used to lubricate its gears and keep it telling the correct time. (Some have even suggested that this clock was the inspiration for the nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock.”)
Who let the cats out?
- Although there may be earlier cat access portals in other doors around the world, the one at Exeter Cathedral is the oldest with written records, thanks to the payment Bishop Cotton made to carpenters who cut the hole for eight pence.
- Even before the cat door was created, cathedral records from the 14th and 15th centuries state that funds were set aside to feed the cathedral’s cat, with the working feline receiving a stipend of 13 pence a quarter.
- The Exeter Cathedral cat door is a sought-after attraction for cat-fancying visitors. It’s also been used by more recent cathedral cats, including a ginger cat named Audrey and a black and white cat named Stapledon.
- Farther north in England, Chetham's Library in Manchester also has an extremely old cat door (also a hole rather than a flap). England’s oldest public reference library, which is still operating, was established in 1653, though the library building dates back to 1421, when it was home to a college of priests. Depending on when the cat door was cut into the wood, it might be even older than Exeter’s.
